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H flDemorial 



TO A DEVOTED WIFE 



MOLETTA CLARK BAKER 



BY HER HUSBAND 



HENRY E. BAKER 




WASHINGTON. D. C. 
19 2 3 




EI ISS" 

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A MEMORIAL TO A DEVOTED WIFE 

BY HER HUSBAND 



VIOLETTA CLARK BAKER was born in Windsor, 
Canada, and moved to Oberlin, Ohio, with her 
rather s family, when she was scarcely five years old. 
In her childhood, she was delicate and frail, but always 
energetic, industrious and ambitious. From the first of 
her school days, s'le exhibited a remarkable desire to 
learn, and was always eager to excel. These same 
characteristics follo'. /ed through her whole school life. 

Family misfortunes forced her to abandon, for a time, 
the orderly course of her studies, and she went forth to 
Oberlin, Ohio, and then to Detroit, Mich., to the home of 
an aunt, where she pursued her studies in the public 
schools of that city. Af.er that she began her own career 
as a teacher in the schools of Kentucky. In that State she 
distinguished herself for thoroughness, efficiency and 
initiative and became a teacher in the High School of the 
city of Lexington. 

It was from this position that she came to Washington 
to accept a place in the Departmental Civil Service secured 
through competitive examination. She held this position 
until her marriage in 1893, to Mr. Henry E. Baker, of 

s 






Washington, D. C, when she resigned to take charge of 
the little home that her husband had built for her on Sixth 
Street, opposite Howard University. 

During her service as clerk in the Department, she 
had still pursued her ambition to learn ; and so began 
and completed a business course in Stenography and 
Typewriting in the evening classes of the Spencerian 
Business College of this city, graduating with honor 
in the last class to which pupils of her race were 
admitted. 

For a brief while after resigning her clerical position 
in the Department, Mrs. Baker served as instructor in 
the Commercial Department of Howard University. 

And later, in 1898, she entered the Sauver Institute 
of Library Economy in Amherst College, Massachusetts, 
graduating with her class when the course was finished. 
A few years later she was given a position in the Library 
of Congress at Washington, where, for more than twenty 
years, she rose, step by step, holding there at the time of 
her demise a responsible and confidential position, making 
in it a record for efficiency, fidelity and initiative which was 
highly creditable to her, and which has been a source of 
pride and pleasure to many women of her own particular 
racial group. 

4 



During her stay in the Library of Congress she sought 
to take advantage of the opportunity at hand for doing 
some special thing ihat would redound to the credit of the 
women of her racial group. And so, in her spare 
moments, she compiled from the records of the library what 
is supposed to be the most complete index extant of the 
literary productions by and about colored women in this 
country and elsewhere. It was her earnest intention to 
complete and publish this most valuable collection, showing, 
as it does, the inr.er life struggles and aspirations of the 
women of her race. But this task, too, was left 
uncompleted by her sudden taking off. 

But it was primarily in her home life, as the 
faithful companion of her husband in all his trials and 
triumphs, that her really superior qualities shone above the 
common level. In her loyalty to home and all its interests, 
in her household affairs, in her constant efforts to 
make home a pl'-ce of real love and companionship 
she was distinctive and untiring. 

Unused to, and not in sympathy with that part 
of social life wh'ch gives itself to mere pleasure and 
frivolity, she nevertheless sought to keep alive the 
native instinct of sociability, and thus made for herself 
a desirable place among those whose social activities 



5 



turned toward uplift. But to many persons of both sexes 
and all ages her home was an attractive spot where the 
wayfarer might be sure of a gracious welcome, a generous 
hospitality and a cheering word. 

Violetta Clark Baker was for more than twenty-five 
years a charter member of the literary circle known as The 
Book Lovers, serving always as an active member, some- 
times as its secretary and historian, and was its president 
at the time of her demise, on October 25th, 1923. 

Many years of her life were enjoyed as a member of 
the delightful little coterie of friends living in the immediate 
neighborhood of Howard University, where in their varied 
club activities she met them and loved them and was loved 
by them. 

She was a member of the Howard Park Citizens 
Association since its organization in 1910, and together 
with her husband, worked zealously to make this organiza- 
tion effective for good in the civic betterment of the com- 
munity involved. 

As a charter member of the local Correspondents 
Club, an association of letter writers, active alike in refuting 
erroneous and in appreciating commendatory statements 
appearing in the public press and elsewhere concerning our 
race group, she drew constantly upon her wide range or 
reading to aid in this fine work. 

6 



PD 1.0.4 



She was a member of the Advisory Board of the 
Phyllis Wheatley Glnb of the Colored Y. W. C. A. 

By beautiful flowers and by tender expressions of 
sympathy these organizations bore fine testimony of the 
high esteem in which they held her memory. 

During the last few years of her life Mrs. Baker s 
health began to fail, i.>nd though urgently advised to with- 
draw from all outside activities, she nevertheless preferred 
to pursue her wor'i and finally succumbed when the last 
point of endurance had been reached. 

Her frail little bark entered upon the tempestuous sea 

of life, where she was compelled for most of the time to 

combat its terrors all alone until she came alongside the 

sturdier vessel ot her life companion. Together they 

worked heart and hand, until overtaken by the cruel wave 
which swept her from him, carrying her beneath the surface 

only to rise again on the Eternal Shore where she will 

abide forever in the benign presence of the Prince o{ 

Peace. 

As a wife she was loving and devoted ; as a friend 

she was faithful and true ; as a christian, consistent and 

upright. She leaves to mourn their loss a loving sister, 

Mrs. Minnie Davis, of Bordentown, New Jersey ; two 

devoted brothers. Gyrus N. Clark, of Vancouver, British 



Columbia, and James R. Clark, of Madison, Ohio, and a 
sad husband. 

On the other side of Jordan, 
In the sweet fields of Eden, 
Where the tree of life is blooming. 
There is rest for you, dear. 

Fold her, oh Father, in thine arms. 

And let her henceforth be 
A messenger of love between 

Our human hearts and Thee I 

HER HUSBAND. 



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1^,' D08BS BROS. 

LIBRARY BINDING 



ST. AUGUSTINE 



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